Interning for Peace Corps allows you to learn more about the volunteers, the way the organization works, and to meet many RPCVs and hear their experiences.

Cons

Many of the lower-level employees are not very respectful of interns (however, the upper-level staff seems to really value your work).

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Make sure there is better supervision of interns- not only do we need a clear boss to make sure we get our work done and know who to ask questions of, but it's also helpful when applying for future positions to know who we should put down as the supervisor who can speak to our quality of work.

-great people who want to go the extra mile: a real difference from many other federal agencies-HQ is a nice, newer building in good location-feeling that your job supports efforts that matter and help our world's poorest people

Cons

-5 year rule creates vacancies to move up, but creates high turnover and poor institutional memory-funding is poor compared to other agencies

Advice to ManagementAdvice

-eliminate 5 year rule for high-technical knowledge positions-reduce number of political appointees

The people and the mission. I love what we do - we help people in the poorest parts of the world and in doing so we learn so much about ourselves... as individuals, as a culture, and as a country. One of the most important aspects is that we bring back what we've learned and share it with our friends and family. Also, unlike other government agencies, the people who work there are passionate about what they do. Bureaucracies exist but people strive to work in spite of them.

Cons

10% of the workforce are political appointees - and historically, the ones that are sent to the Peace Corps are unqualified and inexperienced. All senior leadership are political - so every four (or eight) years everyone starts reinventing the wheel all over again. Knowledge management systems are non-existent as are training opportunities, and often opportunities for personal and professional growth. Also, many positions are at low grades while people are expected to not only, consistently, do things above their pay grade but to take on workloads that fall outside the scope of their position and to cover for other positions that are not back-filled - mainly due to lack of funding. (The agency is top-heavy with a large portion of limited resources funding the inordinate number of high-dollar, low-productivity political appointees).

Advice to ManagementAdvice

Petition the White House to reduce the number of political appointees. Invest in building knowledge management systems. Assess how many people are doing multiple jobs and why - and take corrective action. Assess for consistency across the agency in regards to like positions having comparable salaries and performance expectations.